The Fall of a Hero
by Dehedroth
Summary: Dante fights to save a city from the demons that have taken it over. Unknown to him, the demons have a new leader. More powerful than any other before. Now, Dante races against time to save the world, once again, before the demons gain a foothold.
1. Day One: Dawn of Evil

First Day: Dawn of Evil

It was a city once so grand. Tall buildings, and thousands of people once made it live. The days were full of joy, sorrow, work, and play. Now, after the demons attacked, the city lay in ruins. The buildings crumbled. Corners of streets are now makeshift graveyards with all the people buried under the rubble. What once was the Motor City, now is a demon's fortress.

The wind whipped through the streets. News papers, with articles covering the first day of the invasion, blow about the street freely. The city is quite now, except for the few screams of the helpless victims or the sounds of gun fire from the few Marines that are still fighting. Atop a still standing building, a figure of a man kneels, bathed in shadow, watches the city. His eyes full of fire at the death and destruction caused.

"NO! GET AWAY!" screamed a woman carrying a baby. She was being chased by a trio of Goatlings. The woman ran with all her might but could not escape. Her energy was running low. Running all day, no food, and carrying her baby was doing her in. The Goatlings cackled in their demonic voice as she finally gave up and fell.

Slowly the lead Goatling moved up to her. The woman tried to scream but couldn't manage to make a sound. The Goatling was drooling in anticipation of her flesh. Inch by inch it crept up on her. Crouching down to pounce on her, the Goatling suddenly screamed out in pain and died. A trio of gunshots could be heard from above the street.

The man jumped from atop his resting place. "Don't touch her!" the man said in a firm voice. The shadow gave way after he fell into the light. Landing in a kneeling position, his red trench coat falls in a circle around him. His shoulder length silver hair falls to cover his face. Standing up, the man glares at the two demons opposite him. His eyes full of rage, her raises a black handgun and points it at the Goatlings.

"_Son of Sparda,_" barks one of the Goatlings in it's own tongue, "_You've plagued us long enough!_" The Goatlings begin to charge. Crack. A bullet flies through the skull of one of the Goatlings, killing it instantly. Angered by the lose of it's comrade the last standing demon charged forward with more fervor. Reaching it's target, the demon swung it's mighty claw for the Son of Sparda's head.

With a smile on his face, the Son of Sparda gracefully dodged the blow. Spinning to his right he stops with his back to the Goatling, his face looking to the left, and the barrel of a white handgun in his right hand under the Goatling's chin. Roaring in one last act of defiance, the Goatling falls dead as the Son of Sparda pulls the trigger.

Holstering the pistols, the Son of Sparda helped the woman, he just saved, up to her feet. Staring at the child, he begins to have flash back of his own child hood. Quickly dismissing them though, he turns away from the child and her mother and walks off toward the east. "Wait!" shouts the woman. "I want to thank you for saving me and my baby. What's your name?"

Looking back at the woman, the Son of Sparda smirks at her. "My name," he begins, "is Dante."

Dante's face freezes on a pool of water. Demons mill about it constructing a throne room. Two humanoid figures stand above it staring in disgust at the figure. One banishes the picture from the pool and turns toward the railing on the balcony overlooking the rest of the city. The other falls in behind him, a step back and to the right.

"What shall we do about him?" One says gently.

"He will become a distraction if we let get too far." The other states flatly.

"And what if he gets here?"

"I'll not be able to beat him with out 'it'."

"Do you know where 'she' is?"

"Yes, I can feel 'it'. 'She' does still have 'it'."

"Shall I retrieve 'it' for you?"

"Yes."

"And what of 'her'?"

"Kill 'her."

"Yes... Father."


	2. Day One: The Slayer Rises Up

Day One: The Slayer Rises Up

The chatter of fully automatic rifles was all that could be heard in the remnants of the building that once was the Hard Rock Café. The 3rd squad of the Marines 2nd division decided to use it as a makeshift bunker. What started out as 20 men at the beginning of the day, now is reduced to eight fully active Marines, and three wounded but still combat worthy Marines. Now, as they have done for hours before, they defended their position against the demons that advance on them.

Round after round flew into their ranks. Demons fell, but another was there to replace the fallen. To the Marines it seemed like an endless flow of demons coming after them, more than ever. Frantically the Marines tried to push back their attackers. They pulled out all the stops. SAW machine guns were set up with overlapping lines of fire, Claymores were placed out in the street just after the last attack, and grenades were placed in area that could be easily reached, even by the wounded.

Lt. Patrick Jamison crouched behind a table with his M-16/M-203 trained out the door. He pulled the trigger with the utmost precision, killing a demon with each shot. He was smirking. He thought that it was going to be much harder to kill something like this. His confidence inspired his men to be more confident in spite of these odds. Crack, Crack, Crack. Three more shots, three more demons fell.

Not far from his Lt. was Pvt. Chris Dread. He was manning a SAW when the demons attacked. He looked over at the ell-tee as he shot. _Man, where did they get him? He hasn't missed once._ He banished the thought from his mind. As long as they had him, they'd make it out ok. Firing his weapon Chris saw a new demon that hadn't been out to attack before. They were humanoid in shape but were more lizards than man. They wore old armor, a helmet, a shield and a breast plate.

As the Marines fired into the new demons, their rounds bounced off. Unswayed by this they continued to fire. Nothing got through. The new demons raised their unarmored hands and pointed them toward the Marines. Their nails seemed to be like razor blades. The demons fired their nails straight from where they were supposed to stay. The razor blades peppered the Marines position. Marine after Marine fell. The only one that survived was Pvt. Chris.

Seeing all his former friends lay dead Pvt. Chris decided that it was time to run. Leaving behind his weapon he got up and ran for the opposite exit. Tears were forming behind his eyes and soon after that he began to break down. Both out of fear for his life and for the loss of his friends. Running with all his might he could hear the cackles of the demons behind him. He ran so hard that when he hit whatever it was he was knocked on his ass and knocked out.

Dante stood above the human who ran into him. Looking him over he laughed, "How'd someone like you survive that mess out there?" Walking over the unconscious man Dante crept through the remains of the Hard Rock Café. The demons had gone too far now. The bodies of the fallen had been flayed of all their flesh. Blood covered the floor in a thick blanket. Even with all his experience Dante couldn't help but shudder slightly at the sight of this. These humans didn't deserve this.

A sound came from what once was the store of the Hard Rock Café. It was the sound of flesh being torn from a body and being eaten. Dante slowly crept around the corner to see two Blades eating a human, or at least what was left of him. He was down to the skeleton in places but his face was still intact. It still held the emotion of fear and pain. It came to Dante that he was still alive when they got to him.

Dante stared at the Blades as they devoured the man. _Time to end dinner for them_ thought Dante as he drew his sword and slammed it into the ground, tip of the blade first. The hilt was twisted around and came to a small orb for a pommel. The blade itself looked as if it was coming out of a dragon's mouth and wing were used for guards. Lightning emanated from the blade. "Hey, demons! I think that's enough for now!" Joked Dante and he leaned up against a wall.

Sniffing the air, the Blades turned toward Dante and screeched. Both launched at him at the same time. Dante watched as the both of them flew at him and when the moment was right he preformed a back handspring and landed right next to his sword, Alastor. Pulling it from the ground, Dante readied himself for the next attack. One Blade came on the attack right away. Lunging forward with its claw, it hoped to cut into Dante's stomach. Easily sidestepping this attack Dante hacked into the Blade's arm, cutting it off cleanly at the elbow. Screaming in pain as green "blood" sprayed from the arm the Blade leaped away out into the street.

The other Blade, seeing what had happened, attacked while Dante had his back turned. Screeching in glee the Blade leaped forward and slashed downward. It was met with an upward slash from Alastor. The blow sent the Blade flying back. Its armor saved it but when it slammed into the wall the shattered the already weakened breast plate. Slowly getting up the blade was met with the tip of Alastor. Staring into Dante's eye, the Blade shrieked one last time then plunged itself on Dante's sword.

Pvt. Chris awoke with a really bad headache. Gathering himself, he got up and soon could hear a loud pitch screech. _I shouldn't go . . . but I have to know_ was all on his mind as he crept toward the sound, his hand gun drawn. He got there in time to see a man in a red trench coat scrape one of those demons off a huge sword. He was in awe. Looking around he also saw the claw of one of those demons on the ground, still leaking its green contents. Rounding the corner to confront the man Pvt. Chris saw the remnants of his friends. He instantly doubled over and vomited.

Hearing the sound of a man vomiting, Dante turned around to see the man who ran into him doubled over by the bar. Shaking his head, Dante walked over to him, grabbed him by the shoulder and walked the man out of the Hard Rock Café. All the while Dante tried to "comfort" him. _This isn't one of my strong points_ thought Dante.

The sun finally sat on that day. Dante had made a makeshift home out of an old office building. Placing the man down on a couch Dante walked around to his desk, put his feet up and closed his eyes. He replayed the days events through his mind.

_Five demons today. It was slow. I can't help but think that something is going on here that I'm missing. Who ordered this? Who made this happen? It couldn't be Mundus, I kicked his ass so hard that he wouldn't even dare to come back, and it couldn't be Arius, the human isn't that smart to do that . . . even if he survived my beating. So who? Who?_

Sleep finally over came Dante. Else where a group of demons trailed a woman in black. She had a huge object on her back covered in a red cloth. She knew they were following her but she didn't do anything. She felt the great presence with them. She knew that she would die soon.


End file.
